DYKWIA

Yes.... Agreed.

Dave Noble

I would never take a taxi from Heathrow ( or Gatwick ) airport but take public transport

cargueiro

I fly long haul into London regularly and always choose LGW over LHR if on EK and use train into London Bridge or occasionally Victoria, always with suitcases.

I like the train from LGW as there aren't too many steps. I dislike the HEX due to price, the fact it only goes to Paddington and one then has to use Tube (steps). LGW has trains to lots more destinations.

Whilst shopping at LGW is not great, its small size makes it a far nicer airport to use.

eternaltransit

If in J or F, then who cares about train or taxi - you are being driven

If in Y, then it will depend on where you live and your destination rather than airport amenity: they are both perfectly acceptable airports - how much you want to spend on transport.

I don't find that U2 passengers have any effect on my travel experience: LHR T3 is full of boorish pax as well as LGW.

They are both large public buildings with many places to avoid them, if they even become an issue - my travel experience isn't affected by their mere presence because I am not so sensitive to surroundings given the frequency of travel but YMMV; my experience in hospitality does show that some people are affected by simply being in the vicinity of others (positively and negatively), but it's entirely a reflection on the individual and their expectations.

As for staff, my interaction is limited to security personnel, lounge receptionist and the gate bp scanner

Will08

Wow quite a passionate thread. I wish I knew about this site when Lindor stopped being available in the reception of the lounges!

akalra1187

Well I didn't want to say I usually fly J or F, so that's why I said taxi instead of chauffeur drive, but it's pretty much the same thing. By road LGW is a real pain to get to from anywhere other than south of it. LHR is easy enough from every direction.

eternaltransit

Agreed, but if one is in a car being driven then I don't think it makes much of a difference how much of the pain the drive is, only timing and taxi fare.

akalra1187

Heathrow has the tube whilst Gatwick doesn't? Gatwick has trains to Victoria and London Bridge AFAIK. Both of which aren't particularly close (walking distance) to anything unless you get straight of the flight and go sightseeing or perhaps you work in the UK government, and even then you probably don't need to get to Whitehall straight off the plane. Paddington on the other hand is walking distance to W1, which is probably where you will be staying as a tourist or on work in 'London'.

DYKWIA

Give it a rest... You can get a direct train from Gatwick to Blackfriars, Farringdon etc. which is great for the City of London (which is a big financial area if you didn't know...). Or go on to St. Pancras for connections to the North and East of London.

simons1

From LGW you can get a direct train to London Bridge, Victoria, Blackfriars, St Pancras.

One change will get you to Waterloo, Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Kensington, Shepherds Bush.

No problems preferring LHR but frankly your comments are a bit silly.

akalra1187

Except my whole point is that using a train to take a long haul flight is counterintuitive, and have only responded to comments about trains to give a balanced overview.

I feel silly repeating that even with the one change, even if one must take a train to an airport with luggage Gatwick is still going to take longer, one change or five, ten minutes or two hours: longer is longer.

If the OP is visiting Brighton, by all means LGW is closer, but what's really silly is claiming that LGW is closer to Central London than LHR, that is just misinformation.

DYKWIA

​​​​​​As somebody who used to work on Fleet Street, I could be at LGW in about 50 minutes. That involved a 10 minute walk to Blackfriars, and a direct train to LGW.

LHR would be a 20-30 minute bus to Paddington, and the Hex. Or 50 minute tube journey after a 10 minute walk. So, both options would be 1 hour plus.

I travel with a rollerboard and a laptop back, not huge prices of luggage that you seem to be suggesting is the norm.

akalra1187

Ummm but the Gatwick to Blackfriars and vice versa train is 50 mins in itself, the train is every half hour only add to that your walking time and waiting for the next train, maybe services have changed since you were there?

Why couldn't you take the district line from Blackfriars or Temple and switch to a Piccadilly line train anywhere after South Ken where the lines run parallel? Switch when you see a Heathrow train running parallel on the adjacent platform and there is no downtime, Door to door not more than 40 mins.

You take a trolley bag and laptop bag for a 8 hour or longer flight? How long do you stay at your destination for?

Dave Noble

Only if you ignore the 42 minute services

from tfl, it shows the journey from Blackfriars to Hammersmith as 25 minutes and then 32 minutes on to Heathrow . This is 57 minutes in itself and ignores any connection time


Nothing uncommon with travelling only with carry on luggage. I travel for 5 nights with just carry on luggage. Only when going on holiday do I tend to tale checked luggage

simons1

Sometimes a longer distance can be quicker by public transport. That's the point many posters are making. If you are leaving from the City then LHR may be geographically closer but LGW is probably quicker.

Any why do you keep droning on about baggage. It need not slow you down. Not everyone travels with a 30kg case.

The Blackfriars trains will shortly return to 4x per hour and 40 mins now the rebuilding work at London Bridge is finished. And as pointed out elsewhere the tube timetable has 57 minutes for the journey you mention....why do you keep making things up?